62 temple. The reason for this was the fact that the Mekong River was impassable, due to the presence of the large Khone Falls. The Khmer persisted south along the shores of the lake to establish a base at Sambor Prei Kuk, and in due course the capital Isanapura was formed. This was from the end of the 6th to the start of the 7th century, and that area was also a land of malaria. In those days there existed in the lower reaches of the Mekong River a nation called “Funan” that is recorded in China’s “History,” and there endures a theory that this was an Indonesian country different from that of the Khmer people. It is recorded that in the middle of the third century, Wu of the Three Kingdoms period of China sent a messenger to this Funan country. About ten years had passed since Himiko of Yamatai had sent an envoy to Wei (239). Funan being the earliest nation to open in Southeast Asia, it served as a transfer point for China. Various spices and a variety of products from the marine world were collected here, and cultures like those of Buddhism and Hinduism entered here through Indian merchants and other people. From the outer port of Oc-Eo, numerous excavated items from the Indian region and the Persian Gulf that arrived through the Maritime Silk Road have been found, and apart from Indian statues of the Buddha and Hindu deities, Persian sculptures and Roman coins have also been uncovered from the ruins. Funan later became unified with the Khmer people’s Chenla (China’s name for the Khmer nation), and the Khmer people acquired numerous aspects of Indian culture from Funan, such as writing, religions, and agriculture. Fragments describing the vicissitudes and conflicts of the two nations are also recorded in the Chinese historical materials. The Chinese historical sources comment on the state of the glory days of Funan since its inception, but in the 7th century the nation came to an end. In Chinese historical sources this Southeast Asian region was referred to as the land of “Southern Barbarians,” and it was viewed as being culturally at the bottom. In narratives relating to its establishment, Chenla later developed from around the 7th
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